Barry Keoghan told Jimmy Kimmel that he “couldn’t look at” Ringo Starr when he met the Beatles drummer
“It was sort of one of those moments where you’re in awe and you’re just frozen,” Keoghan said of the visit
Keoghan will portray Starr opposite Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon and Joseph Quinn as George Harrison in four Beatles movies
Barry Keoghan felt a healthy amount of nerves when he met Ringo Starr for the first time.
Keoghan, 32, revealed that he just met Starr, 84, “the other day” during his appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live. On Wednesday, May 7, host Jimmy Kimmel mentioned the Beatles and asked the actor if he has been practicing his drumming skills as part of his preparation to portray the musician in the band’s upcoming four-part biopics.
Keoghan, who was promoting the new movie Hurry Up Tomorrow on Kimmel’s show, said that he visited Starr at his home in order to observe the legendary rock drummer and get to know him before he, Paul Mescal, Joseph Quinn and Harris Dickinson begin portraying Paul McCartney, George Harrison and John Lennon, respectively.
“It was sort of one of those moments where you’re in awe and you’re just frozen,” Keoghan said of the visit.
When Kimmel, 57, asked if he was deliberately observing how Starr plays the drums, he said, “Yeah, I was… And when I was talking to him I couldn’t look at him. I was nervous, like right now. He said, ‘You can look at me.’ And again — you’re playing Ringo Starr. My job is to observe and take in kind of mannerisms and study, but I want to humanize him and bring feelings to him, not just sort of imitate him.”
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Keoghan added that he found Starr “absolutely lovely” during their meeting and said the two mostly “just sat in the garden, chatting away.” Earlier in the interview, Keoghan said that Starr even “played the drums for me.”
“He asked me to play, but I wasn’t playing the drums for Ringo,” he added. When Kimmel asked Keoghan if he had requested that Starr play during his visit, the actor said, “It just kind of naturally happened.”
“Yeah, he wasn’t just playing when I walked in,” Keoghan said of the visit. “We went over there, we talked first and we had coffee. I didn’t just show up… It’s like, ‘Where’s Ringo? Oh, I can hear him.’ “
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty
Ringo Starr, circa 1964
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Director Sam Mendes first announced that he would make four intertwining Beatles movies in February 2024. While the massive production confirmed that Keoghan, Mescal, Dickinson and Quinn would portray the iconic rock band at CinemaCon 2025 in March, rumors had swirled about each of the actors for months.
As Keoghan noted during his Jimmy Kimmel Live interview, Starr himself revealed that Keoghan would portray him while speaking to Entertainment Tonight in December 2024.
“I’m excited that [Mendes] has taken the madness of making four movies at the same time,” Starr himself told PEOPLE of the biopic project in March.
Keoghan’s new movie, Hurry Up Tomorrow, is in theaters May 16. The four Beatles biopics, which have not yet received official titles, are expected to be released in spring 2028.
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